Psychosis
by Dlbn
Summary: Akame Nisei and Aoyagi Seimei have finally been submitted to the local psychiatric center...or have they...?


Disclaimer: I do NOT own Loveless, Nisei, Seimei, or anything else pertaining to the series. That all belongs to Yun Kouga. I make NO money off of writing in this category. I DO however own Hideki Akame and the other members of Nisei's family. Oh, and the guard that isn't that all important here.

000

The main in front of him in the padded room with the white walls and floor isn't tied down. Strong plastic-looking handcuffs are secured around his wrist so he can't reach up to his face. A metal plate has been secured over his mouth. Why? The visitor will never know. All he knows is that this fair, lithe, raven haired man, this person in the cell in front of him was-still is, his mother reminded him the other day-his younger brother. He looks rather intimidating with those hard chocolate orbs glaring at him over the metal plate, as if daring him and anyone else that came by to take it off of him and just see what he could do. He barely seems to register that he was staring at a familiar face and not a doctor as he makes his way closer to the door. They had warned him not to get too close to the madman. He isn't someone you want to mess with. Not someone you want too close to you. He's never been afraid of his brother before, so why should he start being afraid now? The elder brother reaches through the bars to the now prisoner he grew up with. He hadn't had to ask the men in the pristine white lab coats if they thought he was dangerous; he could see it in their eyes when he informed them who he was and who he was here to see.

The slightly shorter male in the cell leans close enough to the bars of the little window in the cell door so that his brother's fingertips ghost along his pale, translucent skin. It neither seems to annoy or make the boy happy, but it's something he probably needs. He had been here for two weeks before his brother knew where he was, and his contact with humans had probably been rather limited. Pleading chocolate eyes meet his brother's and blink up at him. He knows what the younger wanted. Slipping his finger into the latch in the back that held the metal plate shut, the elder brother pops it off and catches it before it can clamor down to the ground and alert the guards that his mouth is unrestricted.

The shorter one shifts his jaw to each side and cracks it. Lips chapped from a lack of moisture, he opens his mouth to speak, but no sound comes out.

"You haven't been able to talk for a long time." His brother informs. "It may be hard..."

"Seimei." The word ghosts from his brother's lips so softly that he isn't sure if it had actually been said.

"What?"

"Seimei…where's…?"

He doesn't recognize the name. All he knows is that they were brought in together; unconscious. They'd been separated and probably hadn't been allowed to see one another since they were brought into the psychiatric center.

"I don't know." He admits. "On the other side of the ward, I think…they don't seem to want you two together…

"Of…course not…" A chuckle reverberates deep within his brother's throat.

His voice sounds grainy and deep; his dry throat refusing to let him speak properly. He clears his throat, but it does little to help.

"Are you proud of yourself, Nisei…?" His brother asks the question that's been dancing on the end of his tongue since he got the phone call a week ago. "Proud of where you are?"

Nisei cocks an eyebrow. "I didn't…choose…I didn't choose this." He's slowly regaining use of his voice.

What the elder brother doesn't know is that this is dangerous. Nisei isn't physically capable of doing or hurting anyone or anything, he knows that. It's his mouth that's his most dangerous weapon, and it's Seimei behind that weapon, guiding his every word.

"Well, I certainly didn't choose for it."

Nisei shrugs one shoulder. "Tomato, tomato." He informs. "Why are you…here?"

"To see you."

"Why?" His eyes harden. "Aren't I just a…_embarrassment_? A…_burden_?"

Names his mother and father had called him a month prior at a family reunion he had forced him to attend, regretfully so.

"Of course not."

"This certainly can't be good for the family image."

"No one but me knows."

Nisei cocks an eyebrow. "Saving me the humiliation, hm?" He wonders. "How did you know I was here?"

"Mimuro called me."

He nods once, as if he had anticipated that it would be his best friend to rat him out. Honestly, he isn't all too surprised. Kind, caring, _concerned_ Mimuro couldn't keep his mouth shut about something like this. He's grateful his parents and the rest of the family aren't aware of this, but honestly it would be better if his brother wasn't here and didn't know either.

"Do you know why? Why you were brought here…?"

"Enlighten me." The words are a challenge that his brother doesn't sense.

A dry, pink tongue lapped uselessly at his lips to moisten them. When his brother offers him opened cherry Chapstick, it isn't long before he runs his top lip over the stick and then rubs his lips together to spread it over both of them.

"Arigato." He sounds strangely appreciative.

"Domashimashite." His brother states. "Do you know why you're here?"

"Do you?"

He nods.

"I said to enlighten me."

"They said…you killed someone…"

"Ah, of course they said that." Nisei uses his shoulder to scratch at his head. "And what do you think?"

"I don't know what to think." His brother shakes his head. "I don't understand why you're here. I don't understand why they're all afraid of you around here. I don't understand why they were more concerned about preventing you from speaking then tying you down. I don't understand any of this, and I don't know what to make of it, either."

"What do you think of me now?" Nisei flops down Indian style on the soft floor of his cell, staring up at his elder brother.

Dark eyes that match his own stare at his brother in disbelief. Never once in his life has Nisei cared about what anyone, especially his own brother, thought of him. So why was he asking?

"I think you need help…" He says slowly, finding his throat feeling raw and lips feel dry as he licks them once. "I think this is all a bit excessive…but…most of all…" He clears his throat. "I see you as my innocent younger brother that refuses to blend in with the rest of us."

Nisei laughs once. It's a bitter sound, devoid of any and all emotion. "Innocent, eh?" He wonders. "Tell me, Hideki, what would you think of me if what they say is true? What if I _have_ killed someone? Multiple someone? Perhaps I enjoyed it. Perhaps it was _fun_."

"You wouldn't hurt a fly."

"Do you know that for sure?"

"And even if you did, you wouldn't derive some sick pleasure from it."

"Do you know that for sure?" Nisei is full-on glaring now. "Can you say that undoubtedly, with one hundred percent certainty, that I am the rebellious, carefree, _innocent_ little brother you've come to know me as?"

Hideki doesn't answer, at least not right away. The questions hang awkwardly in the air as he looks around to make sure no guards are around to hear his brother talking.

"I feel like I don't know you at all." He says at last and feels the weight rise off his chest. "I'm starting to think that I never did."

"Bingo!" Nisei laughs.

It's purely maniacal. It is the sound of someone whose last bits of sanity are slowly slipping away. Due to his confinement? Or was he always balancing so precariously on the edge of sanity, and Hideki just hadn't _noticed_ it before? He shudders at the thought that he really _doesn't_ know his brother as well as he has always given himself credit for.

"Now you're starting to get it, are you not?" Nisei wonders as his laughter suddenly ceases. "You spent your whole life thinking that you know me better than anyone else, that you _understand_ me. And with just a few words, your reality has come grinding to a halt right in front of you and is cracking apart." Nisei huffs. "It's _pathetic_ how easily someone breaks when the truth is finally shoved right in front of their damn ignorant faces."

"What are you talking about?" He hopes he's dreaming, he really does.

This man, this _thing_ in front of him is _not_ his brother. It's something else entirely.

"Oh, forget it. I can't expect you to understand. Words have power, just remember that."

Hideki nodded. "Which is why you shouldn't curse or damn people."

"Don't get high and mighty on me, Hideki, I don't want to deal with your shit."

He can tell he's angering the shorter male.

"Gomennasai."

Nisei nods his approval. "Now, I have to ask you. What are _you_ doing here?"

"I'm here to see you."

"Why?"

"You're my little brother."

"So?"

"I thought you could use some company."

"Bullshit."

"Nisei…"

"Don't lecture me." Nisei snarls. "You're here to see for yourself if your dear little brother is really as insane as everyone else tells you he is, aren't you? So you can say 'I told you so' when you warned me to watch what I was doing or I'd fall down the wrong path." He rolls his eyes. "But you're wrong. I didn't walk down the wrong path. I was pushed down it, dragged into this hell pit I'm living in, courtesy of him…"

"Him…?"

"The bastard I asked you about earlier."

"Who is he to you?"

"…" Nisei doesn't answer right away. "You wouldn't understand." He says at last.

"Try me?"

Nisei blinks at him, blatantly ignoring the question.

"Well is he your friend? You work with him? …You're sleeping together…?"

"What? No, ugh, no." Nisei crinkles his nose in disgust. "Work with him…I suppose that's close enough. He's my…employer…"

"How is that _hard_ to understand?"

"There's more to it." Nisei smirks. "Let's just say that there's a _reason_ they had me gagged like they did."

"…What are you planning on doing now that I took it off…?"

"Clearly I'm talking to you before I forget how to speak Japanese properly." He rolls his eyes. "What do you think I want to do? Break out? No, I'm not that stupid. They'd just come after me."

"The guards?"

Nisei blinks.

"The doctors?"

"The people who _really_ run this ward." Nisei looks around the plain room he's confined to. "I have to say, I'm rather _surprised_ they let you see me, let alone let you see me alone."

"The people who really…?"

"Are you slow? Or are you just playing parrot and repeating everything I say to me?" Nisei is clearly annoyed. "If you're being a parrot, I'm not amused, and you can get lost."

"No, I'm just confused. Who runs this place?" He had already met the director, who had advised him to be careful around his brother from here on out.

"Ah, that's probably not something I should be talking about. Loose lips sink ships and all that."

"You can't just say something ambiguous like that and then not explain yourself. That isn't fair."

"I don't play fair." Nisei shakes his head, long midnight black bangs falling in front of his eyes. "I hear people say that too much…you're about to die, jackass, of _course_ it isn't fair…for you." He cackles. "It's either you or me, and in the end, I'd rather be the one alive at the end of the day."

"You mean…you…?"

"I've killed people, yes." He says it as if he's telling his brother the date.

The honesty and simplicity of it sends a shiver down Hideki's spine. How can Nisei be so cool and calm about an admission like that?!

"All under orders, like a good boy." Nisei prattles on. "They act like it's such a big deal. Like the Executioner is the only person in the world that's allowed to kill people. The little brat can only do so much, and she won't do it without proper paperwork and information and probable cause or whatever. And by the time she gets all that? It's too late. They've offed themselves to escape her judgment, or they've gotten away. Or there's even more victims of whatever scheme, whatever plot they had had a part in. Their system is flawed, so pardon _us_ for pushing it forward a bit. World's better off without those bastards, anyway…"

He rambles on about justice and the 'Executioner', whoever that is, for a good ten minutes while Hideki listens, barely catching the point of the madman's ramblings. And that's all they are; ramblings. Of someone who has finally lost what little grip they had left of their sanity and has finally fallen off the deep end that they'd spent the majority of their lives so close to. He feels bad for his brother, he really does. He probably doesn't even know half of what he's saying, honestly. And he doesn't even _know_ he's lost it.

"You're probably growing bored, aren't you?" Nisei wonders at last. "Its fine, Hideki, if I bore you or ramble, kindly tell me to shut the fuck up."

"Don't curse like that."

"What? Don't like the word?" He knows he doesn't. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!" He laughs.

This one is a real, genuine laugh. Not a half-crazed cackle, not a shrill screech, not a maniacal explosion. A real, honest to God, from the bottom of his blackened heart laugh. It almost makes Hideki smile, yet he grimaces at the word and realizes that at this point, Nisei really is just messing with him.

"Stop it." He orders him, like a parent would a child.

Their parents never really disciplined him as well as they should have. It was always Hideki telling him no and teaching him right from wrong. Their parents weren't very attentive after their middle child, Nisei, was born. After Kimiheri was born-the third, last, and youngest of the children-they almost completely checked out and devoted themselves to their work and their only daughter. Hideki didn't resent his parents. He was sort of happy that they had left him and Nisei to their own devices and to take care of one another. Of course, once he was about ten years old, the innate desire to have anything to do with his family worked its way out of Nisei's system. It wasn't like he and Hideki had been the best of friends to begin with, but there was certainly a gap between them. He knew Nisei didn't like being treated like a child or an outcast, but he couldn't help it sometimes. His brother didn't really know right from wrong and was a threat to the family's image. Their parents may have tossed him to the wolves for that, and Hideki did everything he could to prevent it.

Nisei rolls his eyes at him. "You can't control me, _brother_."

"I'm not going to even try to."

An eyebrow is cocked.

"What?" Nisei was speechless. "But…you're always on my case about doing the right thing and keeping up the family image…"

"And look where that landed you."

"Can't argue with that logic." Nisei shrugs. "You know, there is really only _one_ thing that I ever wanted…"

"And what's that?"

"To be me."

"What does that mean?"

"Do you think I ever gave a fat lying rat's _ass_ about the family image and blending in and bending to dad's stupid whims and desires?"

"No…?"

"That's right! No! Never! Yet you three tried to corral me in, cage me in. You tried to make me fit a mold I _obviously_ wasn't meant to fit." Nisei sneers. "My entire childhood was devoted to bending to the whims of others. And as you said, '_look where it got me_'. I wasn't _born_ a monster. I was _made_ to be one." From the look in his angered orbs, it's quite clear that he doesn't think his brother understands this. "I have _never_ been able to be myself. No one ever accepts _me_ for _me_. Until…Mimuro-sempai came alone…he's the _only person_ to know who and what I am and not _give_ a flying fuck as long as I'm alive and happy and, mostly, healthy. He's just glad I wake up every morning. And then there's Seimei. He's as twisted as I am, so of course he accepts me as what I am. I can _completely_ be myself around him and not worry about anyone passing judgment. See, everyone _says_ they care, everyone _thinks_ they understand. But no one ever really does. Mimuro accepts me, but he doesn't _know_ me. Not the way my _master_ does…and you…you never knew me in the slightest, yet you were always on my back telling me what I had to do and who I should be. Well who the _fuck_ are you to decide who I get to be, huh?" He was sitting up on his knees now, looking as if ready to pounce like an angered animal. "And then you have the gall to come here and act like you understand while using pitifully veiled attempts at getting me to feel remorse and repent and see just what I'm doing to the family with this." He stood, stalking slowly to the door. "You're not here because you think I need _company_. You're not here to find out the _truth_ about me. You're not here out of the _kindness of your damned heart_…"

"You shouldn't damn…"

"Let me finish!" He snarls. "You're _here_ to gloat that you were right about me going down the wrong path, and now that I've landed myself in an _asylum_, you're hoping I'll give in and cave into your desires and do whatever it is you say to fit the mold you and those genetic donors-because I refuse to call them my parents-made for me. Well guess what, brother, _dear_? It _isn't_. Fucking. _Happening_."

Hideki takes a step back, more out of shock then out of fear. He sees a grin crawl across his brother's face. It's a manic grin, devoid of humor and joy. If his brother can feel anything, it's most likely only negative, skewed emotions.

"Aw, is big brother Hideki afraid of me? Finally afraid?"

"I'm not afraid of you. You just surprised me."

He looks disappointed. "Aren't you scared being here? I'm _insane_, Hideki…"

"No you're not. You just think you are and it suits you just fine so you keep up with it. That's all it is."

"You think this is all an act?" His eyes narrow. "Shatter!"

The plastic cuffs around his wrist audibly break apart and fall without a sound. His arms are through the bars soon after, hanging there lazily.

"How…how did you do that…?"

"See, dear bother, I told you that my mouth is my most dangerous weapon, didn't I?"

"But…how…?"

"Eh, it's something you couldn't wrap your head around even if you tried. I control words, you see. So yes, words _are_ a very powerful thing!" He laughed, reaching towards his brother with his right hand.

Hideki spots what looks like a tattoo going down his brother's slightly crooked middle finger. He grips the hand gently in his and runs his fingers over the letters. They are in English-which is weird because his brother doesn't know a single word of English (that he knows of), as he had opted out of English classes in school-but he can make out the letters as he runs his fingers along them. It doesn't feel bumpy or raised, which means it was probably old.

B-E-L-O-V-E-D.

"Beloved." His brother states, pronouncing the word perfectly, as if he had practiced it numerous times. "One who is loved."

"Ironic."

"Hm, yes." Nisei nods once. "They all say that…"

"What happened to your finger?"

"A madman sprained it." Nisei states. "It didn't heal straight, but that's the way it goes. Jealous prick."

"Jealous?"

"This name…marks me." Nisei grins wickedly. "I can't tell you too much, but you think I'm insane anyway so it's not an issue. You won't be killed for knowing too much."

"Uh…?"

"Anyway, it's my link to Seimei. My bond. That _psycho_ that sprained it is jealous that I have a _real_ bond with Seimei, destined for me. Yet his is printed on like a bad joke in the Sunday comics." He snickers as if it's actually really funny when, in reality, it was a stupid pun at best. "Hate and jealousy can do crazy things to people."

"So can love."

"Ah, but we're not talking about that." He wags a long pointer finger at his brother. "You asked about my finger and I'm explaining. Please stick to the program, dear _brother_."

He can tell from the sarcasm dripping from the words 'big brother' that the younger is getting agitated.

"Gomennasai."

"Hai, you should be." He pulls his injured hand away from his brother and offers the other one.

Pale flesh meets pale flesh as Hideki presses the pads of his fingers to his brother's. His brother seems disgusted by the physical contact between him as he visibly surpasses a shudder.

"Nisei…"

"Hai?"

"I'm sorry…you're right…I had no right to…to try and make you into something you're not…"

"So you realize I'm not what you want and never will be?"

He nods.

"So then what am I really?"

"You're my brother and whatever you are…is perfect…"

Nisei pulls his hand back, a look of shock on his face. "P-Perfect…?"

No one has ever called him _perfect_ before. He'd been called a mistake, a loser, a wreck, damaged, a disgrace…but never _perfect_. The word is almost as ill-fitting as the word printed down his finger. Yet amidst the surprise that's evident on his face, in his candy colored eyes, there's a calm acceptance hiding within. He likes how that word sounds from between his brother's lips. He likes how his spine tingles when he hears that word. He _enjoys_ the rare praise his brother is thrusting upon him. He looks broken. Like someone who had just lost everything and everyone they had once held dear. He isn't insane, he isn't mad. He's in his right mind and he knows what he's saying and what's happening and who's there. He _knows_ and he's not afraid to tell his brother everything he can and wants to tell him. But there is something he's holding back. Some things he is still keeping secret.

But that's okay. Because as a brother who spent so long trying to turn his brother into the person he wasn't, Hideki was happy with any little true piece of himself Nisei was willing to offer.

"Visiting hours should be over soon." Nisei says, withdrawing his hands. "You should put the mask back on me, I guess…"

"They'll know it was off, won't they? The cuffs…?"

Nisei reaches behind him and swirls his hand about. The handcuffs form together, open. He hands them to his brother and stands on his toes so he can reach his hands out through the same bar.

"Don't cuff me _too_ the bar, alright?"

"I'm not stupid." Hideki huffs, reminding him how much he and his brother actually are alike in their mannerisms.

He clasps each cuff shut around his brother's wrists with an ominous 'click'. Nisei pulled his arms back in and readjusted his shoulders.

"Arigato."

"I'm sorry…"

"I know." Nisei waits for his brother to put on the mask.

Instead, he pulls out his Chapstick and rubs it generously on his brother's still chaffed lips.

"I hope they're at least feeding you off and on…"

"Yeah." Nisei nods. "For the most part. IV though so it's disgusting."

"I'm sorry…"

He shrugs. "Not your fault."

With shaking hands, Hideki puts the metal plate over his brother's mouth.

"Thank you for coming to see me…" Nisei states, as the mask his clamped shut.

"You're welcome…I'll be back…"

He feels a lump building in his throat. He may be back again, but something in him doubts his brother will be in this cell waiting for him again. Instead, he fears he's going to see him next lying on a metal table, cold as death, with the eared boy named 'Seimei' at his side.

Nisei nods at him as if he knows the turmoil building within his sibling. Hideki puts his hand through the bar and Nisei presses his cheek against the cool palm. The younger brother turns and walks back to the center of the cell, flopping down Indian-style again. Hideki withdraws his hand just before a door opens and a guard walks in.

The tall, strongly built man glares down at him. "Visiting hours are over, Akame." He informs.

"Hai, I know." He swallows the words 'Nisei just told me' before he can say them. "I was just saying goodbye."

"Make it count."

There's finality in his words and Hideki can't help but glance back to his brother.

"Goodbye, Nisei." He states. "I'll get you out of here. I promise."

Nisei's slightly widened eyes sparkle with something Hideki can't place as he nods at him in reply; his only way to agree to the promise. Though Hideki can almost _feel_ him saying 'no you won't, idiot'. His brother knows he's going to die here. He's accepted it. But he's scared.

"You'll be okay…"

The false promise is lost on Nisei, but his eyes don't leave his brother's until the guard shuts the door to close off the mini barred window into the cell. The lump in Hideki's throat sinks into his chest as the guard leads him away through the double doors at the end of the hallway. Saying a mental prayer for his brother, Hideki allows the guard to lead him out. Two figures pass by him, one short and one tall, but he pays them no mind as his mind falls numb. He soon finds himself outside the building; the heavy metal doors clanking shut with a groan of protest, locks clicking into place inside.

Hideki blinks as he gathers his bearings and makes his way towards where he's certain he parked his car, pulling his keys out of his pocket. Halfway to his car, he hears a scream. It's an ear-piercing, gut-wrenching, heart-shattering scream. Instinctively he knows it's Nisei. They've just done something to him. He's hurt, possibly dead. But there's nothing either of them, nor that Seimei kid his brother wanted, can do.

Hideki turns to one give one last look up to the fifth floor, where his brother is-was?-being kept. Before he can turn completely, everything goes black.

000

Akame Hideki screamed himself awake. The woman at his side, with raven hair and olive eyes, awakened around the same time he did; roused by his screams. She shook him violently.

"Hideki?" She wondered. "Hideki, wake up! It's just a dream!"

His eyes popped open and he moved to look at her. His breath came in via a series of heavy pants.

"N…Naya…?" He wondered.

His girlfriend of the past two years smiled gently down at him. "You were having a nightmare. You woke us both screaming!"

"A nightmare…?"

The dream was fresh in his mind as he ran a hand through his short raven black hair. It felt so real…but the things Nisei was saying…Nisei! He scrambled out of bed and grabbed the telephone, confusing his girlfriend as he rushed into the living room and dialed. Was it really all just a dream? Or was it a memory floating to the surface after he repressed it? The phone rang twice…three times….four…he was about to hang up but the phone clicked as if it had been picked up.

"Do you have _any_ idea what time it is?" A groggy voice that he doesn't recognize greeted him.

"S-Sorry, I know it's early…" Two AM, according to the television clock. "But um…this is important. Is Nisei there by any chance…?"

"Hideki…this _is_ Nisei, you fucking _idiot_."

Relief washed over him at that admission.

"S-sorry…I'm half asleep…"

"Yeah, yeah, so am I. you better be _dying_ if you're calling me at this hour. I have school in the morning, you know!"

"Like you attend regularly…" He chided.

He could almost see Nisei roll his eyes at him in response.

"Whatever." His brother said at last. "_Why_ are you calling me at this unholy hour like a dumb-fuck?"

He was clearly trying to upset his brother with his swearing, but it wasn't working.

"I just…I had a dream…"

"…It doesn't make you gay…"

"That's not why I'm calling! I know I'm not. No worries in _that_ department, I assure you. Unlike you, I know what I'm into."

"I know who I'm into." Nisei stated, a smirk in his voice. "So if you're not calling me to figure out if your dream means you're gay or some _stupid_ shit like that, then _why_ are you calling me about it? Can't you talk to your girlfriend about it?"

"No, I can't…"

"Ah, one of _those_ kind of dreams? Then no, it doesn't make you unfaithful. Now stop calling me about stupid shit at two AM!"

"It's _nothing_ like that. Would you just _listen_ to me, you psychotic prick?" Hideki snarled.

"Well, _someone_ is pissy." There was amusement in his voice that he barely concealed. "Go ahead and talk. I'll try not to fall asleep while you do, but no promises."

Hideki rolled his eyes. "I had a dream…I was visiting you in a psychiatric center…"

"What? I knew you thought I was insane, but…"

"You were handcuffed and they had some kind of mask over your mouth but I took it off so we could talk. And…you said you were there…because you had killed people and got caught…and you were proud of it…" He went over the finer details of the conversation they'd had in the dream. "And then I heard you scream and I…I just knew you were…"

"Dead?"

"Hai…"

"Sheesh, you could tell me all that shit but the word 'dead' got you all choked up? That's pathetic, you know."

"Excuse me if I don't want to think about my brother getting killed." Hideki snapped. "So…what do you think…?"

Silence rang for a while and Hideki thought his brother fell back to sleep on him.

"What do I think?"

"Yeah…"

"Why did you call me?"

_Why are you here?_

"To make sure you were okay…"

"It was a dream. Why wouldn't I be okay?"

"It felt so real…I wasn't sure if it was a dream or…"

"A memory?" He sighed. "A person's memory can convince them of things that aren't true if it's allowed to. Memory is such a frivolous thing. It's so easy to manipulate…to destroy."

He was almost rambling as the insane version of him was in the dream.

"Your point, Nisei?"

"Ah. Just musing to myself." Nisei replied.

A shout in the background ordered him to get off the phone and go to sleep. He pulled away from the receiver and shouted back something-in English, surprisingly-before returning to the phone.

"I have company. Gomennasai about that." Nisei stated. "So what was your question again?"

"What do you think…about my dream? It's not real, right? It can't be."

"Of course it can't be real."

"Because you've never killed someone."

"Because I've never been caught."

The static that greeted him at the other end of the phone line after his brother hung up rang through Hideki's ears and made his blood run cold. Nisei was only messing with him. …Right…?

000

At his apartment, Nisei chuckled as he put the phone back in the receiver. An angered Seimei stood in the mouth of the hallway behind him.

"Who the _hell_ calls someone at two in the morning?" Seimei wondered.

"Apparently my overly concerned brother when he has a bad dream and is semi-convinced it was a memory." Nisei replied.

"You have a brother?"

"And a sister, hai." Nisei nodded. "Older and younger respectively." He chuckled. "Idiot had a dream he visited me in a psych ward because I'd been arrested for killing people."

"And he thought it was a memory?" His eyebrow cocked.

Nisei shrugged. "He doesn't know anything. Maybe a forewarning. He did say something about you and my name, but not much. He probably thought I was either rambling like a nut job or that it was dream nonsense."

"Then why did he call?"

"To make sure I'm alive. I guess I died in the end or some shit." Nisei brushed past his master and entered his room.

With a sigh, Seimei followed him. "Erase his memory, would you?"

"Must I? I think it's hilarious."

Seimei rolled his eyes. "We'll discuss it in the morning."

"Hai." Nisei agreed, squirming underneath his blankets.

Seimei waited until Nisei was almost plastered to the wall before climbing under the covers as well, facing the other direction. Nisei's shoulders convulsed from giggles he was trying to keep inside. Seimei kicked his cloth covered leg with a sock covered food.

"Stop it. Go to sleep."

"Hai, Seimei."

_It's impossible because I've never been caught. But, dear _brother_, there's always a first time for everything._

000

Back in his home, Hideki found himself unable to sleep. After downing half a medicine cup of Nyquil and drinking some warmed up water, he finally crawled under his blankets next to his girlfriend. Nisei's words rang in his head as his eyes closed.

_Because I've never been caught._

Those words would come to haunt him in both his sleep and in the waking world; ironically ebbing away at his sanity; the very sanity his brother once possessed and was stolen from him in his dreams.

_You've never been caught, Nisei. But, if you really _are_ a killer…hopefully…one day…you will._


End file.
